This short presentation is about the second phase of an interdisciplinary, cross-national project dealing with the effects of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) in Ghana. ASGM is a major industry in the country, directly involving over a million people. But it has major negative effects on both environment and health. I will be presenting the follow-up to the first phase, in the form of the use of Participatory Theatre (aka Theatre for Development) as a means of bringing some of the issues to the attention of local people and inviting them to see how changes in how mining is done, or even the abandonment of mining itself, can lead to beneficial effects on livelihoods and well-being. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic we were not able to run the plays. Instead, I show extracts from a student-led play in a similar area, dealing not with mining but with teenage pregnancy. I point out the relevance of language in communicating about these issues. I close by showing the build-up to the project, especially the importance of working with traditional and official authorities. I argue that people have strong feelings of place and community, and are outspoken in their defence of where they live.
Paul Kerswill is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of York. His specialisms are in dialects, migration and youth language in Britain. However, he has long had a strong interest in language and development issues in West Africa.
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